120 students at the catholic private school Saint-Martin d’Angers were due to watch the film on Tuesday.

But the cinema Les 400 coups had to cancel the showing, as the school refused to let their charges go and see the. The ban was the result of tressure from the Manif pour tous, who link it to ‘gender theory’ ( la prétendue « théorie du genre ».

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Malaysia’s main body of Islamic clerics has issued an edict banning tomboys in the Muslim-majority country, ruling that girls who act like boys violate the tenets of Islam, an official said Friday.

The National Fatwa Council forbade the practice of girls behaving or dressing like boys during a meeting Thursday in northern Malaysia, said Harussani Idris Zakaria, the mufti of northern Perak state, who attended the gathering

(Reuters) – France’s Socialist government dropped plans on Monday to update family law this year after huge weekend protests by conservatives against gay-friendly reforms they say harm traditional families.

The government tried on Monday to reassure the protesters, who numbered over 100,000 in Paris and Lyon on Sunday, that the new law would not legalise assisted procreation for lesbian couples or surrogate motherhood for gay men who wanted children.

But when Socialist lawmakers insisted they would amend the planned bill to include those reforms, the government announced the draft law – which would also define the legal rights of step-parents in second marriages – needed more work.

“The government will not submit a family reform bill before the end of the year,” the prime minister’s office said.

Sunday’s protesters, many of the Catholics but also some Muslims, tapped continued resentment against the legalization of gay marriage last year to pressure the government not to go further and allow ways to help gays have their own children.

Ludovine the Rochère, (the ultra-Catholic leader of the Manif pour tous), was glad, “”What stood out in this bill was that it was not conducive to the best interests of children and the family.”

For Yannick Moreau, UMP (main right-wing oppositon) : “It’s a great victory for the popular mobilisation, quiet and peaceful (…) But we must remain vigilant: there are still ambiguities on the LDCs, the GPA with the circular Taubira which is still not repealed, or the experiment with ‘gender’ (theory) in 600 of our schools with the ABCD of equality. “

Christian Jacob, the leader of UMP deputies quipped: “In government, we went from cock up to panic. That said, the real victory will be for us when the government has abandoned its family policy.”

The left has denounced the betrayal of the government in yielding to “extremists.”

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Co-President of the Parti de Gauche (PG) , said that the left was “deceived, repudiated” because “with the PS, the right is cajoled, the bosses’ association, the MEDEFis admired the church is blessed (…) Our time will come. I call for a severe punishment on the government in (this year’s) elections.

The National Secretary of Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV – part of the government) Emmanuelle Cosse, said, “The day after the mobilisation of the reactionary camp this decision is of great concern. WE hope the government will go back on its decision.

For Inter-LGBT, which represents lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals, the announcement came as an unpleasant surprise. The association stated late on Monday that the Hollande government was “no longer fulfilling their commitments: this follows a row of setbacks and betrayals over the last months.” Here.

By contrast the ruling Parti Socialiste saluted this as a “good decision”.

Reports indicate that the government considers that this dispute diverts attention from its ‘pact of responsibility’ with employers.

An Ideology of Fear and Loathing.

The Manif pour tous, the Day of Rage, have, in just two weeks, shown that the French far-right is able to get people out in the streets. They come after a year of growing extreme rightist protest.

In some respects there are similarities with the last right-wing popular movement in France, the 1950s Poujadism. In 1956 his Union de Defense Commercants et Artisans (4000,000 members) won 51 Parliamentary seats with 11% of the vote.

He stood up for rural France, opposed “Americanisation”, stood for maintaining the French Empire (above all, in North Africa) but above all railed without end against taxation and the malfeasance of the French state.

Poujade’s movement attracted anti-Semites and the far-right, but was not itself fascist.

The Bonnets rouges have denounced taxation, and ecological taxes in particular. The conspiracy theorists of the followers of Dieudonné echo the “anti-politics” the Poujadists. His racism, under the name of ‘anti-Zionism’ has attracted traditional Catholic right and some touched by Islamist ideology.

There is a widespread disaffection with politics and the “system”.

There is however little sign of the organised anti-Parliamentarianism that Ian Birchall (hat-tip Paul Flewers) describes as a mark of Poujadism.

A better comparison perhaps would be with the mouvement de l’École libre in 1984.

This was organised by the state-subsidised French Catholic schools (École libre), in defence of attempts by the education Minister Savary to bring them under some kind of public control (Projet de loi Savary). The Law envisaged the creation of ” « grand service public unifié et laïc de l’éducation nationale » – a national secular education service.

That year, after demonstrations across the country, in June, these movement attracted between 2 million and 850,000 supporters to a Paris march.

Apart from the mainstream French right-wing the Front National was prominent in the ranks of protesters.

A key aspect of its campaign was opposition to French secularism (laïcité).

The ‘Manif Pour Tous’ movement is calling for a massive demonstration in the centre of Paris on Sunday, February 2, to protest against same-sex marriage laws that were passed by Francois Hollande’s Socialist government in 2013.

After having fought against gay marriage, la Manif pour Tous, has called for demonstration against Medically Assisted Procreation (MAP) for all-women couples, against surrogate motherhood, and against the “ABC of Equality” (taught in schools) *, and a measure put in place in primary schools to combat stereotyping ‘girls and boys’.

The French government is fighting to break a school boycott by parents convinced that their children are being taught masturbation and a non-existent “gender theory” as part of an effort to promote equality between the sexes.

The boycott, which started on Monday and is reported to have affected about 100 schools, was in response to a call by Farida Belghoul, a film-maker and novelist who started a political life as an anti-racist activist but is now close to far-right ideologue Alain Soral, who in turn is an ally of controversial comedian Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala.

She and her supporters claimed that the ABCD of Equality, an effort to combat gender inequality in education and employment being tried out in several areas of the country since last autumn, teaches pupils that sexual differences are socially constructed, leading to little boys be told to wear dresses and children being invited to choose their sexuality.

“Under the pretext of the struggle for equality and against homophobic discrimination” gay rights activists are discussing ‘homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality” in class, the organisers’ website declares.

About 100 schools have been affected so far.

The government has reacted.

“French Education Minister Vincent Peillon ordered principals across the country to summon any parent keeping their child from school in order to dispel the rumour and remind the adults that school is compulsory.

“The national school system is in no way teaching gender theory. It teaches equality from all points of view, and in particular, equality between women and men,” Peillon said.”

A surrealist scene: the chamber nearly descended into fist fights. In a confused state, and journalists looking askance from the press box, UMP MPs, enraged by being made fun of by an associate of the Justice Minister, (that is, their version) – rushed to the lower half of the room. Shouting “Out, Out, Out!”, they approached the Government benches. Ushers and Alain Vidalies, the Minister in Charge of Parliamentary procedures, stood in their way for some minutes.

According to the Libération report blows were exchanged.

Outside around 3,000 demonstrators, many from the extreme-right “Printemps français” vociferously voiced their opposition to gay rights.

French President Francois Hollande hit out at “homophobic” acts by opponents of a same-sex marriage bill following violent protests that included an attack on a gay bar.

The interior minister asked protest organisers to throw out members of far-right organisations who have been involved in the violence, as opposition intensifies ahead of the bill’s expected final approval.

On Wednesday, a several-thousand-strong protest in the streets of Paris turned ugly with cars and public property vandalised and police officers and journalists attacked. Several people were detained for questioning.

In Lille, three employees of a gay bar were injured late Wednesday in an attack by four men who smashed the building’s windows. The owner linked the incident to “tensions” over the parliament vote.

The journalist, who is herself gay, was violently taken aside by those against the law enabling “marriage for all”. (Report here)

As she arrived at Nantes by train over 100 screaming demonstrations from the extreme-right were waiting for Caroline.

That was only the beginning.

They followed her to the meeting venue.

They disputed the meeting, shouting, and throwing stink bombs and tear gas.

Returning to Paris at Montparnasse the anti-gay marriage far right were waiting for her at the station.

It appears that these thugs were part of the ‘Printemps français’ alliance of Christian extremists and the neo-fascist right and racists.

Caroline was attacked in September last year at the annual Fête d’Huma by the Indigènes de la République and the Indivisibles. They prevented her from talking about her latest book against the Front National

They claim she is ‘Islamophobic’ and had no right to speak.

Caroline then, has been shouted down by Islamists, so-called ‘anti-imperialists’ and now, the extreme right has taken upon itself the task of stalking her.

Is it a coincidence that she is a gay women feminist?

Perhaps the Printemps français and the Indigènes de la République could get together and organise a united attack against Caroline Fourest.